Newsletter

Barton: Savannah's naked flaw

Experienced hosts try to follow the No. 1 rule of hospitality — don’t let guests catch you naked. It’s usually not good for the soul. Or the eyeballs.

On Thursday, Savannah City Council is expected to address an item that some downtown residents in this Hostess City of the South believe will affect their privacy — and, by extension, activities that appeal only to Peeping Toms and curtain salesmen.

A tour company wants elected officials to allow double-decker tour buses downtown, overturning a ban that’s been in effect since 1996. The company’s lawyers have said the proposal would help Savannah’s thriving tourism industry, create jobs and possibly relieve traffic congestion by allowing tourists to double up.

But those who live in neighborhoods where these open-air buses would circulate are choking on fumes over this plan, and you can’t blame them. Their biggest fear? That the taller vehicles would give riders a bird’s eye view of places normally hidden from prying eyeballs, like inside parlors and bedrooms or behind garden walls.

Downtown resident Connie Hartridge, who lives in a historic home on a popular square for tourists, is one such resident. She told city officials that if they approve this measure, she would have to close her second-story shutters so outsiders couldn’t see in.

“Shouldn’t we have some degree of privacy? she asked.

She’s absolutely right.

You don’t have to be a respected attorney like Walter Hartridge to enjoy your God-given right to walk around your house in your underdrawers. You shouldn’t have to worry that a bus load of tourists from Buffalo might catch you with your ipso facto exposed.

I doubt that most visitors, except for occasional conventioneers or sailors on shore leave, want to see nakedness when they visit Savannah. But those who want to admire unadorned human forms already have options, like visiting the Telfair Museum or Uncle Harry’s Bar and Grill.

Unfortunately, Mayor Edna Jackson and City Council got caught with their pants down on this one.

This question should have handled through the city’s normal review process. Not fast-tracked until citizens finally took notice.

But this foul-up is a symptom of a larger, more serious problem — the lack of an overarching vision to help guide development decisions downtown. This includes more than double-decker buses, which are the tips of several icebergs. Underneath the surface are proposals of lasting consequence, like development along the waterfront, a cruise ship terminal and a sports arena/stadium complex.

Last month, three organizations with a stake in the downtown’s future agreed to work together for a common, transparent approach to future development. They include the Savannah Downtown Business Association, Downtown Neighborhood Association and Historic Savannah Foundation.

“Our first task is to get the mayor, City Council and city staff to recognize the need,” the groups said in a Dec. 13 statement. Then, it wants the city to revitalize the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority and make it responsible for developing “a new vision for downtown Savannah.”

Among the guiding principles they suggested were:

• Ensure that Savannah maintains its “unique historic character, protects the Landmark Historic District and supports a high quality of life” for residents and businesses.

• All discussions should be open to the general public and all decisions and recommendations will take account of public comments.

• All stakeholders should participate on an equal footing.

This makes plenty of sense. SDRA was created in 1992 to help revitalize Broughton Street and other areas distressed at that time. But in 2011, then-City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney stripped it bare after she tagged it for inappropriately spending.

If given proper marching orders and staffing, SDRA has the potential to be an important guidepost for elected officials who seem to want and need direction.

In that regard, the double-decker bus flap did Mayor Jackson a favor. It exposed a naked flaw in the city’s decision-making process — Savannah needs less seat-of-the-pants governing and more thoughtful consensus-building.